Of Demon Boys and Magic Wands
by kinatsurune
Summary: HP crossover. We've all heard it before...Dumbledore hires our favorite loudmouthed demonboy to protect Harry Potter. But what if Voldemort gets the same idea and hires a demonboy of his own? [mild shounen ai, NARUGAA]
1. Prologue:Of ExConvicts and Dirty Hands

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor Naruto. They belong to their respective owners, J. K. Rowling and Kishimoto. 

Summary: HP crossover. We've all heard it before...Dumbledore hires our favorite loudmouthed demon-boy to protect Harry Potter. But what if Voldemort gets the same idea and hires a demon-boy of his own? mild shounen ai, NARUGAA

Timeline: In the Harry Potter timeline, its post-OotP. BUT SIRIUS DID NOT DIE, BECAUSE HE'S TOO COOL FOR THAT! AND ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE, I'LL...I'LL...

Ahem. Anyway, moving on... ;; Let's just say, Sirius fell through the veil but they were able to recover him after several months' worth of carefully picking the veil apart (magically). In Naruto, Orochimaru has been defeated (because I hate the guy so I decided to kill him off myself >:D, wow I'm giving myself such power here), Sasuke has been brought back, and pretty much everything's going well. Gaara has NOT been made Kazekage, he's just risen through the regular ranks of the ninja.

Ages/Status:

Harry - 16

Ron - 16

Hermione - 16

Naruto - 16, Anbu

Gaara - 16, Jounin

Tsunade and Dumbledore - 1,000,000 who knows how many years

Okay, I think that's all for now...so enjoy and please drop off a review!

**Prologue - Of Ex-Convicts and Dirty Hands**

A boy, almost a young man, sighed wearily as he watched his only relatives pile back into their car, screaming obscenities as their goodbyes. Ignoring the strange looks he was attracting, the teenager grasped his cart and turned to maneuver it towards platform 9 and 10 when a shrieking cry caused him to jerk his head up.

It was not a cry of alarm, however; a slow smile spread itself across the bespectacled boy's face as he spotted the source of the noise.

"HARRY!"

All traces of weariness vanished at the sight of the bright head of orange hair barreling its way rudely through the protesting crowds. Not far behind came even more orange heads approaching, although at a more decent pace.

"Ron!" Harry Potter waved enthusiastically, ignoring the squawking protests coming from the encaged snow white owl atop of his luggage.

"Gawd, Harry, it's so great to see you!" Ron gushed as he finally reached his destination, much to the relief of everyone else in the station. Being knocked down by a huge cart was not the most pleasant thing in the world.

"Yeah, me too." Harry smiled warmly. And he truly meant it. After spending almost his entire summer worrying constantly about whether his godfather was alive or not, not to mention the Dursley's insensitive attitude, he was more than glad to see a friendly face.

"I heard about Sirius!" Ron babbled on excitedly, turning only momentarily to acknowledge the arrival of the rest of his family. "It's true, isn't it? They got him out of the veil? And he's okay and stuff?"

"Ronald, how many times do I have to tell you? He's perfectly fine! Your father does work at the Ministry, you know!" Mrs. Weasley answered for Harry in an exasperated tone that indicated this was not the first time she'd had to say that. "Hello, Harry." She smiled, immediately changing her tone. "Hope you've been doing okay? Been a tough summer for you, I'm sure."

"I'm fine, thank you Mrs. Weasley." Harry responded cheerfully. "Hi Ginny." The younger redhead nodded in response.

"I was just checking with Harry, Mum." Ron defended himself from his mother's previous comment.

Harry chuckled as he and the Weasleys wheeled their carts toward the solid brick wall between platforms 9 and 10.

"So how'd they get him out? And what happened afterwards?" Ron inquired, unconcerned as the two walked right through the wall. "They didn't send him straight back to Azkaban, did they?"

Harry shook his head, smiling. "Not at all. Dumbledore stood up for him, argued for his innocence. Being Dumbledore and all, the Ministry decided to give Sirius a trial of sorts. I actually had to go in and testify - sorry I didn't tell you about that. They weren't completely convinced, though, so they used Veritaserum and just asked Sirius a bunch of questions."

Ron was grinning broadly as the two hauled their trunks into the train. "So he's innocent now!"

"Yeah, it's great! He'll be at Hogwarts, too!"

Ron chuckled at a thought. "Mind you, the press is going to have a field day. If the Ministry could make a mistake in sending one innocent to Azkaban, they're gonna pounce on the fact that there could be more."

Harry shuddered, remembering the effects of a dementor's presence. He didn't know how Sirius had managed to stay sane for 13 years around those monsters, and he was perfectly fine not knowing. "I hope not. Where's - " Harry stopped, pausing to yawn.

"You alright, mate?" Ron asked, concerned. Harry nodded.

"You look a bit tired."

Harry shrugged. "S'ok. I couldn't do homework, what with being distracted with Sirius and all, so I had to do it all in the last week."

Ron's eyes bulged. "The last _week? _You finished all your homework in one _week?_ It took me that long to finish just my Potions essay!"

Harry laughed. "Haha, well, I'm sure if Hermione was with you, you wouldn't have procrastinated as much to take that long. Where is she, anyway?" The black haired teen wondered.

Ron shrugged. "Probably got here before us. Come on, let's go look for her. She'll want to know all about Sirius too."

The two boys chatted amiably about their summers and Quidditch, neither noticing a single eye watching as they left the car.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After the sorting and welcoming feast, the trio broke off from the rest of the Gryffindors and made their way to the staff table.

Ignoring the usual glares from a certain Potions master, Harry eagerly approached the headmaster. "Professor! Is Sirius here?"

Snape nearly flinched with anger at the name, indicating the ex-convict probably was.

Dumbledore smiled warmly at the three students, his periwinkle eyes twinkling in their usual manner. "Ah, I'd wondered when you'd bring that up. Yes, in fact he is here. I've allowed his stay for this school year, as he's desired to spend some much deserved time with you. And I daresay, you'll be delighted to know who our new Defense against the Darks arts teacher is."

"Who? I didn't see anyone new at the staff table during the feast." Hermione frowned slightly.

"That's because it's a full moon tonight." Came a wonderfully familiar voice from behind. At this point, Snape let out a derisive snort and immediately left the table, striding down to the dungeons with a disgusted expression marring his face.

"Sirius!" Harry threw himself into his godfather's arms, nearly knocking the both of them down.

"Good to see ya, Snuffles." Ron offered cheerily as Hermione grinned in agreement.

"You too, guys. Harry, hope your summer wasn't too stressful because of me." Sirius fondly ruffled the messy black hair.

"Course not." Harry grinned up at his godfather, finally releasing him. If possible, Harry's face lit up even more as he remembered something. "Wait, you said the DADA professor wasn't here because of a full moon?"

"Lupin!" Ron crowed, jumping up to hug a startled Hermione.

"Right on. As for me, I'll be assisting Remus once in a while. Oh by the way, my room's in the Gryffindor tower too, its one of the single private ones if you want to drop by."

"Man this is gonna be the best year ever. Sirius _and_ Professor Lupin here, at the same time. Even You-Know-Who won't ruin things for us now!" Ron exclaimed happily.

He didn't know how wrong he was.

OOOOOOOOOa few weeks into the termOOOOOOOOOO

Harry grinned widely, rocking on the balls of his feet as he waited impatiently for his friend.

"Ron, come _on!"_

"I'm hurrying, ok, I'm hurrying!" Came the harried voice. The two had decided to show up early for Quidditch tryouts so they could get used to the feel of their brooms again. Ron, however, was taking an annoyingly long time to get changed.

_Finally_, the redhead showed up, slightly panting, broom clutched in hand. Without further words, the two kicked off from the ground, yelling wildly as they flew about aimlessly. Harry pulled his Firebolt from under him into a straightened position, sending him careening towards the ground.

"Watch this, Ron!" He shouted.

Barely two inches off the ground, Harry pulled as hard as he could and whooshed away from crashing 110 miles per hour into the ground.

"Nice one mate!"

"Yes, really, genius of you to attempt cracking your head open. Pity it failed." A sneering voice interrupted.

Looking down, Harry spotted the all too familiar blond smirking up at him, flanked by several Slytherin players.

"Shove off, Malfoy, its Gryffindor tryouts!" Ron snarled, flying down and dismounting his broom. Harry followed suit, if only to keep Ron from getting into another brawl.

"Do I look like I care? Professor Snape certainly doesn't." Malfoy sneered, brandishing a signed piece of parchment.

"Oh no, you're not doing that again you little - " Ron was abruptly cut off at the sound of slight rumbling.

"What was that?" One of the second year Slytherins spoke up nervously. His companion, another second year, tugged anxiously at Malfoy's sleeve.

"Maybe we shouldn't bother Harry Potter, he might do something to us."

"Shut up!" Malfoy snarled, viciously yanking his sleeve out of the weak grip. "That was just thunder, you ignorant little twit!"

Harry looked up at the clear blue skies, not a single cloud in sight. "Um..."

Before he could say anything more, however, the ground only a few feet away from the Slytherin group shook violently before cracking. Harry could only watch in horror as dirt rose from within the cracks, forming into the shape of a giant hand.

"What the..." Ron gaped, staring.

Malfoy's scream roused everyone from their paralyzed state. In the next second, the group of Slytherins and the two Gryffindors were scrambling madly across the field towards the exit.

"What the effing hell is that bloody thing?" Ron shouted over the din of yelling Slytherins.

"I have no idea!" Harry yelled back. "If this is some kind of joke, or something..."

"_Aquaris Cascada!_" Turning, Harry saw practically a waterfall appear out of thin air to pour over the giant dirt hand, drenching it in sparkling clear water. The hand slowed down considerably, much heavier as mud than dry dirt. Harry watched with morbid fascination as the thing slowly collapsed in on itself to leave only a harmless puddle of mud.

Looking over, Harry spotted the caster of the spell running towards him.

"Sirius!"

"Harry, what the bloody hell was that thing? I come down to watch your tryouts, and you're already in trouble? Although, a dirt hand is definitely not what I expected..." Sirius was grinning though, as if proud Harry was causing mischief.

Harry shook his head. "I didn't do that. We were just arguing with the Slytherins over who had the field, and it just burst out of the ground!"

"The Slytherins are so filthy, the dirt itself probably wanted to make them their own." Ron put in, clearly thinking only of Malfoy.

"Ron, that thing was going for you guys."

"What!"

Sirius was no longer smiling. "Maybe Dumbledore should hear about this."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"A dirt...hand." Hermione voiced tonelessly.

"Yes! The ground just split open, and it came at us like Buckbeak after Malfoy!"

"Ronald, as much as I know you like adventures, you don't have go invent silly things to make them seem more interesting." Hermione clucked her tongue disapprovingly.

"It's true!" Ron wailed. "And check, by the way." He added as an afterthought, knocking away Harry's rook.

"It is, Hermione. It certainly sounds weird, but Dumbledore seems to have taken it seriously." Harry offered helpfully as he moved his king.

The bushy haired girl turned a dubious eye onto her other friend. "You're kidding me."

"No, actually he said something like this happened before. A few days ago, a Death Eater almost escaped from Azkaban because a 'dirt hand' pried the bars open." Harry explained. "There were other incidents too, and they all involved some form of dirt or sand just suddenly coming alive. And they all just happened to be related to Voldemort."

"So the one in the Quidditch field was obviously after you, then, Harry." Hermione worried, finally deciding to believe them. "But what kind of spell would do that?"

"Maybe the levitation spell?" Ron put in.

"But why dirt, of all things? And there wasn't anyone at the field you saw performing any spells besides Sirius, and he was getting _rid _of the thing."

"Maybe Malfoy! He was probably faking that girlish scream so we wouldn't know it was him!" Ron exclaimed excitedly.

"I doubt it, Ron." Hermione retorted. "He wouldn't sacrifice his pride just like that."

Ron grumbled, obviously not convinced.

"Well, Sirius taught me that water charm so if it happens again, I can get rid of it myself. Apparently, water is its weakness."

"Just in case, Harry, I think you should teach it to us too."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: Okay, sorry there wasn't any Naruto in here yet, but this is only the prologue. I guess this chapter is mainly just to link OotP to my story so it transitions better. Next chapter will definitely have Naruto in it!

Please READ AND REVIEW and tell me what you think!


	2. Of Annoying Bastards and Weird Missions

Holy…it's been more than a year…o.O

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Harry Potter.

GYAAAAH HARRY POTTER COMING OUT THIS JULY CAN'T FREAKING WAIT!!!!!!!!!

Review Replies:

Love Squared: Just to let you know, this is gonna be a shounen-ai fic, not yaoi; the difference is that sh-ai is much lighter. As for harry/draco...lol, I love that pairing too but I'm not a good enough writer to be able to focus on more than one major pairing, and this story won't focus on romance anyway. Maybe I'll throw in a few HD hints, but nothing major. Sorry!

HarbringerLady: Yup, he has met Gaara! And yes, that would be hilarious!! XD (that's not how its gonna happen though but it's definitely still a funny thought-maybe I'll make an omake somewhere)

Zina: yay, thanks. I read a lot of cliche crossover fics and wanted to come up with one as original as I could make it.

The Violent Tomboy: Love your penname BTW. And all will be explained so don't get too mad at Gaara...

CuriousDreamWeaver: Gaara is known for controlling sand, but during that fight against Kimimaro, he says something along the lines of how he can make sand from the dirt. So I just sorta took that as he could basically control dirt as well.

Raebef: OMG I LOVE YOU!!! Sorry, I just love reviewers who actually tell me what I'm doing right (or wrong) instead of just demanding updates. Yeah, I tried my best to make the transitioning reasonable, and I'm glad you think it is!!

Monster Envy: hahaa, oh yeah of COURSE it's Shino…(not…-.-;;)

AnonFlame: Sorry to disappoint you, but I am intending this to have shounen-ai (not yaoi, yaoi means more explicit) but it will be pretty light. Well, it won't show up till much later anyway, so I hope you still like it!

Blakrose: Yeah! It's one of my favorite pairings too, but I'm sad its so rare…boo. T.T

azillia: Thanks! I've always been insecure about whether my writing sounds too choppy or not, so I'm glad you find it easy to read.

Jyrotika: Hehe, thanks I love taking a cliché plotline like the HP crossover and putting a twist to it, it's so fun to do! Especially considering the RIDICULOUS number of HPNaruto crossovers out there that have the SAME PLOT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN…guh…

Yllom21: Ahaha, yeah I suppose it is cheesy, but I'm a pretty cheesy person I guess. Can't stand when characters I like die. .

Everyone else: thanks all for reviewing, it really encourages me when people let me know they like my fics! Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you did the prologue and thanks to all who haven't abandoned this fic…_I_ nearly did…

One thing about reviewing though…pleads and threats and stuff like, "UPDATE NOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE OR I WILL CHOP OFF YOUR HEAD WITH A RUSTY CHAINSAW" _isn't_ very encouraging…I know I haven't updated in literally over a year, but that's because of my own issues – in this case, becoming so disgusted with Sasuke that I completely lost interest in the anime for a looong while. I've only recently, grudgingly decided to go back to the series. I'd really appreciate if you could leave even just a small, short comment of what I did right or wrong instead of the previous quote or a simple "update please" – I do want to be able to improve my writing and constructive criticism greatly helps!

Oh, and just a warning: I am a Sakura lover and proud of it! I find it sad that so many people seem to hate and bash her because I think her character is truly awesome especially after the three year time jump. (but no, I don't support SasuSaku; she belongs with Lee!!!) So even though she doesn't appear until much later in the fic as it is focused on our favorite demon boys, I refuse to depict her as a self-righteous bitch that a lot of people inaccurately portray her as.

**If you skipped over all that pre-chapter crap, I don't blame you but PLEASE READ THIS NOTE AT LEAST AS IT APPLIES TO THIS CHAPTER!**

While Naruto is with his own people, he is speaking Japanese. While he is in the presence of English people:

::Japanese::

"English"

Naruto knows a liiiitle bit of English and can understand a moderate amount of it if it's said to him really slowly. Oh, and I refuse to succumb to the cliché of language charms; that makes it too easy and I think it'll be more fun to write the story with Naruto's communication problems. Besides, the whole point of this fic _is_ to defy clichés, anyway.

Oh, and this fic isn't under the genre of humor, but unintentionally this chapter has its funny moments. At least I thought so, anyway...

* * *

**Ch. 1 – Of Annoying Bastards and Weird Missions (and Old Hags who Take Perverse Pleasure in Torturing Innocent Young Ninja who deserve _cool_ Missions like rescuing a princ– **::smack:: **Ow!** Naruto! Stop taking over my titles, dammit!)

"Tsunade-sama, I request that you reconsider my assignment." A nameless ANBU mask droned in an emotionless voice.

"Now why would I want to do that?" A mischievous smirk, rather unbefitting of such a respected position as Hokage, slowly crept onto the blonde woman's face. She inwardly giggled at the obvious (to her) annoyance the ANBU in front of her began exuding.

"You know very well why, because it isn't very…wise to let my partner go on such a mission all by himself." The ANBU replied rigidly, this time his emotions seeping through his deep voice. "Don't you think N-"

"_Ooooold haaaaaaag!"_

Tsunade smirked again. 'Right on time.'

Her evil grin immediately transformed to an innocent smile as a frenzied blur of orange and yellow burst through her office doors. "Tsk tsk, where are your manners, Naruto-kun? Now I'll have to fix that door, and please don't tell me you knocked out my ANBU guards. Again."

The newcomer glared, his sky blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What's the meaning of this new assignment? You're kidding, right? Magic and wizards, how old do you think I am, Tsunade-baba! Five?!"

"Considering you sometimes act that age, it's not a completely unreasonable mistake." The masked ANBU replied tonelessly.

"Oh shut up bastard, you should be helping me out here since you're my frickin' partner and you'll have to do this too. You don't really believe this shit, do you?" Naruto growled, gesturing at the practically destroyed scrap of paper that was his missions assignment.

"Why not? It's not like chakra is dissimilar to their concept of magic. They simply have a different means of channeling their energies." Sasuke replied coolly, finally removing his frog mask. His loudmouthed partner had insisted on picking his mask for him, and the young Uchiha had sorely regretted it. "And according to Tsunade-sama, I'm not going with you, which is why I'm here right now; to argue such a decision since I knew you probably wouldn't be able to handle this on your own."

Naruto bristled, glaring at his best friend/rival/extremely annoying bastard at the moment. "What was that? Are you implying something, you pompous ass?"

Not even bothering to answer, Sasuke turned back to their boss with a determined look on his face. "Tsunade-sama, why have I been assigned a separate assignment? The dobe and I-" "Hey, I'm not a dobe!" "-have always done partner or team missions. Why is this one different?" Sasuke didn't mention the fact that another reason he wanted to avoid his own mission was because he wasn't really looking forward to doing it with Shino…the guy was so incredibly uninteresting it would make even the stoic Sasuke bored from the silence. (A/N: I have absolutely nothing against Shino, this is simply Sasuke's line of thinking)

Tsunade shrugged, unnecessarily straightening her papers. "For one thing, the headmaster at the school is only requesting someone to help protect a single boy; that only requires one person, which will be Naruto. If whatever is threatening the boy turns out to be more serious, THEN the headmaster requests more manpower which will be you and Sakura. But for now, he wants to keep things at a minimum so as not to alarm the rest of the school. Apparently, they are going through unstable developments at the moment."

Naruto snorted. "But seriously, what guy is named _Dumbledore? Moldyvort?_ Were their parents drunk when they came up with those names?"

"It's Voldemort."

"Whatever."

"Are you satisfied, Sasuke?" Tsunade turned her gaze to the stoic teen. "From the way he sounded, it seems like the situation will escalate anyway, so I'm almost positive you'll end up rejoining your partner."

"Ch. Fine."

Naruto grinned, slinging a casual arm around the moody teen. "Awww, is big bad Sasuke-kun _sulking_? Are you gonna miss me that much, bastard?"

Sasuke snorted scornfully, swiftly ducking out from the orange clad arm. "Hmph, you wish. I'm just worried you'll screw everything up before you even get there, usuratonkachi." His harsh words were softened however, by the light dancing in his dark eyes that only revealed itself around his two teammates.

"Why you-"

"Oi, Naruto, where are you going? Don't you need to find out how to get there?" Tsunade called after the two retreating ninjas.

Seeing as he wouldn't have time to come up with a suitable insult in response, Naruto simply stuck his tongue out at his amused partner and darted back inside. "Well?"

"Here, catch."

"What the, don't throw a stinky shoe at me you old ha-" Naruto's voice trailed off in surprise as he felt himself spin away from his surroundings.

"Send reports via owl!" Tsunade waved cheerfully, cackling at the look of surprise on the blond ninja's face.

'Owl? What the hell does that mean?' was the only coherent thought that managed to cross Naruto's mind before he succumbed to screaming loudly like a little girl as he felt his body begin to spin uncontrollably in midair.

(A/N: Omigod, they let us put page breaks now::faints from happiness::)

* * *

"So who are you waiting for, Albus? I hope this Tsunade person is a trustworthy character, is she not?"

Dumbledore chuckled at Sirius's obvious protectiveness of Harry coming through. "Don't worry, her people will be more competent in protecting Harry. Their specialty is staying hidden behind the scenes too, so their presence will not be detected to cause any alarm."

"They? How many are coming?"

"Oh my mistake, just one; according to Tsunade, he will be just enough." The old man corrected himself with another smile.

Sirius frowned, seriously (no pun intended) doubting the abilities of a single person to protect his godson. "I'm not sure about this, how can you trust them so much?"

"Tsunade and I have been in correspondence for a while now; she has heard of our situation in the wizarding world and expressed concerns a couple of months ago on whether it could possibly spill over into her territory. She has even offered help if it meant keeping the conflicts away from her people, and I just happened to accept that help for this particular situation. So as you can see, she is just as against Voldemort as we are, and will thus have no reason to betray us." Dumbledore replied easily, chewing on a lemon drop. "And she is a rather charming woman, I must say, quite young looking for someone so old. I _must _ask her next time how she does it." He added absentmindedly.

Sirius sighed.

* * *

"Please explain to me when we will _ever_ need to use a tickling-grass-blade potion." Ron groaned, mourning his burnt fingers. Snape had been in the _worst_ mood ever, which was probably to be expected with both Lupin and Sirius back at the castle. As a result, he had assigned a rather stupid sounding potion that turned out to be well-nigh impossible to concoct. More than a few students suspected the Potions master simply made up the name himself until Hermione actually succeeded in creating one. Not that it made any difference, as it only resulted in the professor taking away five points from Gryffindor for her 'showing off.' ("Bastard." Ron had muttered under his breath.)

"I don't know, but I'm sure it has some practical use." Hermione responded rather dubiously, glaring at the blade of grass that continued to follow her. The disadvantage to being the only one who had succeeded was that she'd have an annoying piece of grass attempting to tickle her all day.

"Can't you burn it or something?" Harry asked, trying to suppress his laughter as he watched his bushy-haired friend uselessly swat at the piece of grass.

"Can't, it keeps jumping out of the way." Hermione replied irritably, finally giving up. "Argh, it's like a persistent gnat that just won't die!"

"Try outrunning it." Ron suggested, lazily flicking a pebble at the nimble piece of grass.

"I doubt…OOF!"

The two boys gaped, trying to process what it was they just saw. It was quite hard to do so, actually, as it really wasn't every day a random person appeared out of thin air to fall on one of your friends in an unceremonious heap.

"What the…"

::Argh, that hurt, what the _hell_ was that, when I get ahold of that old witch I'm going to rasengan her into the bathing pools for ero-sennin to ogle her all he wants, _ouch_, huh-?::

Harry and Ron stared as the ranting boy suddenly sat up, blinking stupidly down at the girl he had apparently landed on. After a few seconds of awkward silence, he let out a delayed yelp and jumped up, glancing around him wildly as if to get ahold of his surroundings. ::Um, um, shit, where the hell is that Dumbledore guy, wasn't he supposed to meet me or something? Dammit, why can't Sasuke be here to handle stuff like this?::

Shaking his head both to clear his state of stupor as well as adjust his eyes to the stranger's blindingly bright outfit, Harry stepped forward to help his friend up. "You alright, Hermione?"

"Yeah, but who is that guy? And how did he apparate onto school grounds?" Hermione asked suspiciously, dusting herself off. She suddenly frowned. "And did I just hear him say _Dumburudoru_?" The minute the mispronounced name left her lips, the bushy haired girl immediately found a pair of pleading blue eyes practically in her face.

"Dumburudoru! Ano…need! Where…?" The blonde boy fumbled out in a heavily accented voice.

Hermione took a startled step back, noticing with surprise the three scars on each of the boy's cheeks. Huh, they looked almost like whiskers… and was that a fox mask tied to the back of his head? Odd. "So you speak English? Who are you, and what do you need Dumbledore for?" She asked.

The boy paused, as if trying to process her words before shrugging then nodding vigorously. Hermione strongly suspected he hadn't understood what she had said but was simply assuming the question was a yes or no one. Rolling her eyes, she turned to her two friends. "He doesn't seem to have any kind of malicious intent, and-" Something caught her eye and she turned to point at the ragged object. "-and it seems like he didn't apparate."

"A portkey." Harry recognized the article of clothing that was often used as the teleporting device. "Which means he's probably supposed to be here, although considering he doesn't even know English, I can't imagine why. Guess we should just take him to Dumbledore then."

"Yup."

* * *

Thankfully, Potions had been their last class for the day, so there was no need to rush the newcomer in order to get to their next class. Despite their leisurely pace, the trip to the headmaster's quarters was actually rather eventful considering Hermione's tickling pest had apparently transferred to the blonde boy after he had landed on her. The three couldn't help their soft sniggers as they watched the energetic boy hop up and down in irritation, trying to escape the relentless piece of grass.

::What the heck is this stupid thing! Oi, you guys, is this some kind of a joke? Arrgh, what kind of welcome is this, this has GOT to be the worst mission ever! That does it-::

The Golden Trio immediately stopped walking as the foreign stranger suddenly whipped something out of a pouch wrapped around his leg and immediately made lightning fast, near invisible motions. The blonde grinned evilly down at the sliced pieces of the grass drifting to the floor.

"What…was that?" Ron whispered, no longer laughing. "How did he move so _fast?_ And was that a knife he just used?"

The stranger seemed to sense he had done something wrong as his three guides fell into an awkward, suspicious silence. He began fidgeting uneasily as they continued walking, apparently not used to such lack of conversation.

::Man, I wish I could speak good English!:: Naruto thought in irritation. Then he could chatter their ears off and convince them he was perfectly harmless (well, to them); anything to distract them from the obvious mistake he had made when he revealed that bit of ninja skill. He'd already forgotten the mission had explicitly stated to do his best in hiding his purpose and abilities so as to prevent any kind of unease.

Finally, the four stopped in front of the familiar gargoyle statue. Before Harry could even open his mouth to start guessing random muggle candies, however, the entrance activated itself without prompting.

"Huh, guess it recognized you, Harry." Ron remarked. His observation was proven wrong, however, as footsteps echoed to reveal the headmaster followed by Professor McGonagall.

"Ah, Harry, good evening. Thank you so much for fetching our guest, we've been expecting him…although, it seems the portkey was a little off by a couple of meters." Dumbledore said cheerily, periwinkle eyes twinkling as usual.

"Um, hope you don't mind me asking, Professor, but who exactly is he?" Harry asked, voicing the predominant question on his and his friends' minds.

"That's not any of your business, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall said sternly, although not unkindly. Her tone, however, brooked no argument as she shooed them away before turning to gesture the blonde boy to follow the Headmaster up.

"Really sorry, Harry, but he won't even be here that long so you'd best forget you even met him." Dumbledore called down before the gargoyle staircase had lifted him, McGonagall, and the blonde stranger out of sight.

"Huh…weird." Harry muttered.

"Yeah, weird. Why would a kid our age not be here for long? Doesn't he have to go to wizarding school?" Ron pondered as the three slowly turned to make their way to the Gryffindor common rooms.

"Maybe he's visiting from another school. He didn't know English, what he spoke sounded like some oriental language – Japanese, I think." Hermione guessed. "Although, I don't think I've heard of any big wizarding schools in Asia." She added with a frown.

"But what's he here for that won't take very long? The only thing I can think of is delivering a message or some other object. But that doesn't make sense either, because that's what owls are for." Harry speculated, beginning to feel his curiosity become even stronger. That probably wasn't a good thing, considering the kinds of things that had led to in the past.

"Well, no, Hagrid delivered the sorcerer's stone personally, didn't he? Some things are just too risky to deliver by mail." Hermione argued.

"Uh yeah, but you forgot one thing 'Mione; why trust a really important object to someone _our_ age? In case you haven't noticed, the Order didn't exactly deem it necessary to tell us _kids_ certain things, let alone deliver stuff." Harry couldn't help the tiny bit of resentment from creeping into his tone of voice; such prolonged ignorance had, after all, almost caused the death of his godfather.

"Well, I don't know, I'm just speculating! I bet it's nothing, we're probably overthinking the whole thing." Hermione exclaimed, not wanting her friend to go off on another all capital letter rant about the Order's way of doing things.

Ron's eyes widened comically as he covered his mouth in exaggerated shock. " 'Overthinking?' You? Why, _never_!"

"Oh shut up."

* * *

::-don't even get to have my regular partner for this weird-ass mission, then I get a headache because of all that spinning around in some weird dimension, then I land on a girl, probably scaring the crap out of her and her friends, then I find the old hag didn't tell me how I was supposed to get past this stupid language barrier, _then_ I'm assaulted by a stupid piece of _grass_ of all things so I'm forced to kunai it to pieces which is a _completely_ basic skill by the way, they shouldn't have looked that shocked, and what sucks is that you didn't even understand a single word I said!:: Naruto finished heatedly, breathing heavily.

::On the contrary, I did understand, and I completely symphathize.:: Dumbledore responded easily in fluent Japanese, his expression completely serious as if he had completely meant what he had said. Only his ferociously twinkling eyes gave hint to the huge amount of amusement he was feeling at the moment.

McGonagall, on the other hand, despite not understanding what the young ninja had said, frowned at the rather unprofessional yelling. Not to mention the boy was rather young for this kind of job…

Naruto blushed as he realized he'd probably sounded completely disrespectful to this old man who was his client, but he didn't rush to apologize or anything as he wasn't really one to concern himself much with respect anyway. The old hag – err, Tsunade could certainly attest to that. Instead, he let out a mild huff and said in a vaguely sheepish tone::So is there anything your err…_magic_ can do about this language problem?::

::No, I do apologize for that, but I am assuming you at least know a little bit of English Mr...::

::Oh, Uzumaki Naruto, at your service!:: Naruto mock saluted, smiling cheekily. Suddenly he frowned as he fingered the fox mask tied to the back of his head. ::Er, I'm actually supposed to be in my uniform, haha, but the old ha- I mean, my superior threw that…_shoe_ at me before I had a chance to change, so…::

::No problem at all, Uzumaki-san.:: Dumbledore replied cheerfully. ::If you can later describe the kinds of clothes you desire to a house-elf, he can make them available to you right away.::

Naruto decided he'd ask about the house-elf thing later. Before he could say anything further, however, the woman who had previously been standing slightly behind the old man spoke up sharply. In English, Naruto noted with a slight pang of annoyance.

"Excuse me for interrupting Albus, but don't you think he's a little…young for this kind of job?" The Gryffindor head asked dubiously. "He looks to be Potter's age!" That silly orange jumpsuit and equally silly grin on the boy's mischievous face did little to appease her doubts.

"Now now, Minerva, appearances can be _very_ misleading. According to Tsunade, his superior, he is of the highest fighting rank among his people. ANBU, I think she called it."

Although he couldn't understand her words as she was speaking too fast, Naruto understood perfectly what the woman was expressing due to the tone of her voice and her facial expressions. Heck, she practically _radiated_ her skepticism. The young ninja could take being insulted, intellectually degraded (having a certain dark-haired ninja in mind), whatever, but it was when his abilities were seriously doubted was where he drew the line. He needed to prove his all, after all, if he was to become the Hokage of Konoha. With difficulty, he began speaking slowly and carefully, determined to express himself directly instead of through a translation. "Learn…young age. Very. Protect Konoha, fight – no child then, yes?"

It was more of Naruto's suddenly serious gaze than his words that got his point across to the older woman. The female professor wondered at the culture this boy must come from, for him to produce such a suddenly mature look in his clear blue eyes.

::Very well, then, if we could continue with the details of your responsibilities?:: Dumbledore began speaking cheerily as if he hadn't noticed the change in atmosphere.

The serious look on the young ninja's face immediately broke as his customary grin spread across his tanned face. ::Oh yeah, of course. So, who's the one I'm supposed to watch?::

::His name is Harry Potter and you've actually already met him…:: For the next two hours, Naruto tortured himself to actually sit still and listen to the detailed background of this lightning scarred, often trouble seeking Boy-Who-Lived.

* * *

A/N: Oh GOD I have to stop here, I've been typing nonstop and it's…holy, it's almost 3 in the morning. But, I did chug out a longer chapter as promised, over a 1000 words more!! (Yes, I actually word counted it, shut up) So please review for this tired author's soul, and if you skipped my note in the beginning, I will copy and paste it for you to read here at the end:

(Copied and pasted, word for word)

One thing about reviewing though…pleads and threats and stuff like, "UPDATE NOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE OR I WILL CHOP OFF YOUR HEAD WITH A RUSTY CHAINSAW" _isn't_ very encouraging…I know I haven't updated in literally over a year, but that's because of my own issues – in this case, becoming so disgusted with Sasuke that I completely lost interest in the anime for a looong while. I've only recently, grudgingly decided to go back to the series. I'd really appreciate if you could leave even just a small, short comment of what I did right or wrong instead of the previous quote or a simple "update please" – I do want to be able to improve my writing and constructive criticism greatly helps!

Thanks again to all those who didn't abandon this fic!


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